The present invention relates generally to mail receiving devices and, more particularly, to a mail delivery alert system that indicates to a resident when mail has been delivered and is ready to be retrieved.
Presently, a person spends time looking for the mailperson, waiting until they think the mailperson has delivered the mail, or waiting until they are sure the mailperson has delivered the mail before they go to the mailbox. If the resident goes to the mailbox and, in fact, the mailperson has not yet delivered the mail, he has unnecessarily expended the effort to go to the mailbox. This can be a frustrating experience and, for some people, very tiring or inconvenient.
Various devices have been proposed in the art for detecting mail delivery, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,611,333, 6,222,451, and 6,831,888. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, each of these proposed devices must be physically attached to an existing mailbox to operate.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a mail delivery alert system that determines the presence of mail within a mailbox and alerts a resident through a remote receiver of such detection. Further, it would be desirable to have a mail delivery alert system that includes a unique code such that the remote receiver is alerted to the receipt of mail by the correct mailbox. In addition, it would be desirable to have a mail delivery system that minimizes false signals to the remote receiver.